The present invention relates to pre-conditioning an electrical signal, and in particular to a method and apparatus for pre-conditioning an electrical signal to compensate for the effect of a non-linear amplifier on the signal.
An amplifier tends to exhibit substantially linear response to an input signal over a limited range. When an input signal has a large variation in amplitude, the amplifier generates distortion in the output signal, as a result of its non-linear behavior, for those parts of the input signal exceeding a signal level corresponding to the onset of substantial non-linear behavior.
This problem can be addressed by producing an amplifier with linear behavior over an extended range. However, to ensure that significant distortion will not be generated, it is necessary to know the maximum input signal strength, so as to be sure that the amplifier range is sufficient.